No-No Boy tells the story of Ichiro Yamada, a fictional version of the real-life “no-no boys.” Yamada answered “no” twice in a compulsory government questionnaire as to whether he would serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the United States.

JW:
Julian, my favorite song on the album is “Imperial Twist,” which is set
in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Can you tell me about that song?
There’s just so much to unpack and chew on in there.

JS: It all started with a visit to a restaurant in Paris. This is where most of my family went after the war. They were refugees in France – that’s a long colonial history. But I’m talking to this old high school friend of my mom’s, Robert Vifian, this very French Vietnamese guy. I just wanted to know about what it was like growing up in Saigon because, like I said, it was a hard story to tell from my mom’s perspective.

And he started talking about how he was in a band. And automatically I lit up. This is how I relate to history. I’ve got to know what songs were being played, what bands were popular. That’s how I have a way in. And he says, “Yeah, we were playing American music for the Americans. Rock and roll because they wanted bands to dance to and listen to. And so they’d buy us instruments and we’d form bands and we’d fly through the jungle in helicopters piled with drugs and prostitutes and then the Vietcong would be shooting at us and then we’d go play Hendrix and The Doors in the jungle for these American G.I.s.”

It just lit me on fire, man. A history never came alive so much as when Robert recounted that story, and I had to pass that along. And then that started a whole excavation, a process of discovery [for me], of all these Southeast Asian rock bands who were just incredible, who made a few scant recordings and they’re in a few compilations. It became some of my favorite music ever.